OH BUOY THAT’S BIG!

BEZOS KICKS OFF BATTLE OF SUPERYACHTS

IT’S a serious case of the haves and the have-yachts. If you think a holiday in St Ives feels exotic, (perhaps don’t) spare a thought for the world’s richest man Jeff Bezos, who’s just been revealed as the soonto-be owner of one of the most exquisite and expensive superyachts ever to take to the high seas. The Bond-style vessel is estimated to cost upwards of $500 million and will be as long as the Great Pyramid at Giza is tall. According to leaked documents, it even comes with a second yacht for landing Bezos’s girlfriend Lauren Sanchez’s helicopter.

But Bezos and his girlfriend aren’t the only VIPs joining this exclusive squad in time for summer. Superyacht services firm GYG says it’s seeing a “record level” of orders as the mega-rich invest in their own floating isolation stations. And buoy do these boats have star status. From David Geffen’s rotating crew of A-list (and royal) guests to the floating party palace popular with the Primrose Hill set, these are the boats rocking summer.

Bezos’s Bond vessel

Name: Y721

Price-tag: £356million

USP: Its own support yacht

Jeff Bezos has long dreamed of conquering space, now his attentions have turned to the sea. Plans for his luxury sailboat are still under wraps, but details leaked via the yacht’s Netherlandsbased manufacturer Oceanco suggest it may be modelled on another of the company’s creations, the world’s largest and most advanced sailing yacht, the Black Pearl.

Naturally, Bezos isn’t a man to be beaten. While the Black Pearl is 106m long, his craft will reportedly trump it at 127m, the same length as Britain’s first ironclad warship, HMS Warrior. Like the Black Pearl, Y721 is expected to be powered by three giant masts, meaning there won’t be space to land a helicopter. Given his girlfriend’s pilot background, according to sources, Bezos has gone full 007 and commissioned a separate support yacht with a dedicated landing facility.

Barry Diller’s state-of-the art sailboat

Name: Eos

Price-tag: £142million

A-list crew: Karlie Kloss, Bradley Cooper and Harry Styles

USP: At 93m long, it was the world’s largest private sailing yacht

Bezos probably drew a fair amount of inspiration from his visits on board Eos, the triple-masted sailing yacht owned by film and Fox TV mogul Barry Diller and his fashion designer wife Diane Von Furstenberg. The New York power couple bought the Bermuda rigged schooner in 2009. It has accommodation for 16 guests and 21 crew.

The billionaire businessman was once reported to be paying $2,000 a day to moor the yacht directly opposite his InterActiveCorp HQ in Manhattan and since then, he and his wife have been spotted on holiday in Sweden, Scotland and the Caribbean. Not that you have to hit a celebrity hotspot to catch a

glimpse. In recent years, tourists in the South-West have spied Diller’s luxury vessel towering over trawlers in the sleepy Devon town of Dartmouth.

David Geffen’s VIP mega-vessel

Name: Rising Sun

Price tag: £420million

A-list crew: Oprah Winfrey, Orlando Bloom, Katy Perry, Tom Hanks, Barack Obama and Princess Beatrice

USP: Wine cellars and a basketball court that doubles as a helipad

Bezos has also spent time aboard another celebrity mega-yacht: a 138m, five-storey beast owned by US business magnate and film producer David Geffen. The DreamWorks co-founder, 78, might not be as well-known as his superyacht rivals, but his inner circle blows Bezos out of the water.

Big names on board include Karlie Kloss and Orlando Bloom, and everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Barack Obama has been spotted sipping rosé on the deck. Geffen’s Instagram is a conveyor belt of barefooted A-listers in loose linen shirts but his activity has slowed since the start of the pandemic after he sparked outrage last year by posting photos of himself and friends “avoiding the virus” aboard. He has since deleted the posts.

Sir Elton John’s familyfriendly dreamboat

Name: Wabi Sabi

Price tag: £21million

A-list crew: David and Victoria Beckham

USP: Top-deck fire-pit and a library Unlike Geffen, Sir Elton doesn’t go in for the linen trousers. He and his husband David Furnish prefer to wear jazzy floral shirts for trips on their luxury motor yacht, which last made it onto his Instagram in 2019 when they invited the Beckham family on board for a week cruising around the French Riviera.

The 164-foot cruiser features eight lavish en-suite rooms and space for 12 crew. It comes with an alfresco fire-pit and an inbuilt Jacuzzi with its own bar, while below deck guests can enjoy an entertainment centre with a library and 50-inch plasma screen.

Green’s £100 million mega-cruiser

Name: Lionheart

Price tag: £100million

A-list crew: Kate Moss and Simon Cowell

USP: Gold-plated lifts, an on-board hairdresser and dog-walker

Philip Green recently discovered that not even a three-deck floating quarantine hotel can shelter you from the pandemic. The retail tycoon and his wife had to put their family holiday on hold after two crew members tested positive for Covid.

Lionheart is the third yacht that retail tycoon Green has commissioned and features space for 12 guests and 16 crew, from a personal chef to a dog walker who looks after the family pets.

Alongside the pool, helipad and goldplated lifts, there’s also a beauty salon with a personal trainer, masseuse and hairdresser — no wonder daughter Chloe likes to pose in front of the paparazzi in Monaco.

Kylie Jenner’s £1m-a-week birthday boat

Name: Tranquility

Price tag: £143million

A-list crew: Kardashian-Jenner clan

USP: Turkish baths and bamboo, marble and gold leaf interiors

As the youngest self-made billionaire for two years in a row, it’s only natural that Kylie Jenner chose to turn 22 by joining the billionaires’ boat club. The TV star recently treated the Kardashian clan and some friends to a trip around the Med for her birthday, chartering a 91.5m mega-yacht to sail Capri and Positano. It has 29 staff, a helipad, gym, cinema and spa with massage and steam rooms, sauna and beauty salon.

Moss’s supermodel super-yacht

Name: 86’ Domino

Price tag: £4million

A-list crew: Kate Moss, Sadie Frost and Lady Mary Charteris

USP: Paddleboarding and live-in chef They might have spent lockdown in Primrose Hill, but it surely won’t be long before Kate Moss, inset below, returns to her favourite holiday spot with pals Sadie Frost and Lady Mary Charteris. The north London party set were spotted chartering the superyacht in St Tropez before the pandemic and it’s a party boat built for the life of a former supermodel. It sleeps eight and comes with paddleboarding, scuba gear and a live-in chef. At 47, Moss and co should have had their jabs by the time the borders open up — let the hot girl vaccine summer begin.